


Flawed Design

by curiouser_curiouser



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, F/M, M/M, aka the only leico i'll ever update again tbh, lots of gay, really really slow updates, smut in later chapters probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 07:50:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3802522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curiouser_curiouser/pseuds/curiouser_curiouser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico di Angelo is a simple student at Asphodel Academy. He hates his fellow students, he hates his bitch of a locker, and he <i>especially</i> hates the cafeteria. But there is one thing, however, that he particularly enjoys about his school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Cliché Movie Scene

Pretending to be sick wouldn't work for Nico with a roommate like Bianca. 

He could hardly slip anything by his older sister. He honestly didn't know why he thought trying to get out of going to school was going to be any different than the other times. 

Which was why Nico found himself pulling his black Harley into a tight parking space in the parking lot of the atrocious, Asphodel Academy. 

The last thing Nico wanted to do was go to class, but he didn't really have an option considering he'd already missed half of second period. 

He walked to the automatic double doors of the school and took a deep breath before entering. 

A wave of warmth washed over him, and only then did he realize how cold it was outside. The halls were vacated. 

Nico figured all of the kids were probably in class right now, and he really didn't intend to march into AP History and receive the absolutely horrible and awkward glances he knew he'd get.  
There were two solutions to this problem.

A), Nico could walk out of those double doors and ditch for the day, or B), he could wait until after current lesson and then attend the rest of his classes.  
Neither tempted Nico. 

If he went for the first option, Bianca'd most likely scold him for the rest of the month with that disappointed look that he absolutely dreaded with every bone in his body. 

If he went for the latter... Well, there were many reasons. Having to face the idiocy of his fellow students (not to mention some of his teachers), learning in general (Nico hardly cared to learn about things he was mostly advanced in), and that one class he couldn't quite put in genre... Having to see his - beautiful, funny, handsome, and all around gorgeous - shop teacher, Mr. Valdez. 

The guy was a newbie; A Latino with elfish figures who was an early college graduate. Only twenty three years old, Nico found out. 

Some of the kids were a little skeptical about getting a new teacher, seeing as most of them were old and mean. As the days that Mr. Valdez was there went by, they were delighted to see that he was a sarcastic, funny, and genuinely helpful teacher. 

Sure, Nico was a bit upset he'd have to face Mr. Valdez five days a week for god knows how long, but he also looked forward to it. Why couldn't he be like a normal seventeen year old boy who was obsessed with the most popular girl in school? Why couldn't he just fit in and not want to cuddle with his shop teacher?

He inwardly groaned as he trudged down to his locker at the end of the hallway.

It was about 9:42am, which meant second period was ending soon, and that meant Nico would practically be stomped on by a stampede of eager students.  
He put in the locker combination recalling all the times these stupid lockers decided they'd be stubborn and make life harder by not opening and how it got him into embarrassing situations.  
Fortunately, it worked today. 

Nico pulled out his Spanish textbook (his rather heavy spanish textbook. Seriously, how many words were in this thing?) Spanish was one of his favorite classes.

The language was easy for him, considering it was kind of close to Italian, something he spoke fluently. He looked down at the watch on his wrist.

There was about a minute left until the bell rang. He slammed his locker shut and began to race down to Spanish.

Nico liked to be earliest to his classes; It saved him the total awkwardness that came from being late, not to mention it gave him more time to sketch nothing in particular and just think in general. 

He hardly had any peace and quiet at home, seeing as he lived with his older biological sister and his younger half-sister. 

It was nice to not hear the complaints about how Bianca 'couldn't find her nail polish' or how Hazel 'couldn't believe How I Met Your Mother was over and that Barney had a kid'.  
Seriously, who the hell was Barney?

With a weary sigh, Nico made his way to the back of the classroom where he usually sat. 

Spanish was one of the few lessons he had no partner with, and that was another perk to the subject. Since Nico was lately early (whatever that meant), he had limited time to sketch in his book before the bell rang once and twice and students began filing in, along with the teacher. 

He pulled his aviator jacket to cover his neck, hiding in the warmth like a turtle afraid of the sun. 

Mrs. Gonzalez spoke as she wrote words on the chalkboard. "Hola Students."

And slowly, the day crawled on.

***

It seemed like two long years before lunch came and it was 12:10pm. Nico hadn't had time to eat that morning, and he wasn't the breakfast type, which left him a bit hungry throughout the day. He was only half way through the double doors of the school when a person jumped in front of him, pushing him back into the school. 

"Where do you think you're going, Mr. di Angelo?" Nico looked up to see Octavian, the schools Vice Principal. 

He had no idea why the guy was hired, considering not even the varsity team put together was as much of an asshole. 

"I'm going to go eat lunch," He replied coldly.

Octavian glared at him. "Last time I checked, the cafeteria was that way." 

He pointed down the hallway with no lockers and just different school advertisements. 

"Last time I checked," Nico quoted smugly. "it isn't mandatory to eat in the cafeteria."

"It is now," Octavian protested. 

Nico scowled. He was not good with human interaction, and the lack of common sense from the other students motivated his inability to go and have a conversation one of them. 

"Why are you pushing this?" He asked, glaring. "How would you like it if someone forced you to eat on the toilet while someone was taking a shit in the next stall? Because that's pretty much the same thing as eating in the cafeteria for me." 

Octavian had a sort of stunned look on his face. Was he actually thinking about it?

Nico smirked wickedly, and with that, he pushed past Octavian and rushed out the double doors, only tripping on his feet four times before making it to the parking lot. Little did he know, while walking to his classroom, a certain Mr. Valdez was silently laughing to himself about the whole thing he had just witnessed. 

***

Classes moved a bit faster after Nico had gotten something in his fun-size stomach, though the ADHD really didn't do him any favors. 

Next period was shop, and Nico's inner voices were being seriously bipolar, saying, 'Get out before it's too late!' and 'Go hug your Mr. Valdez!' Of course, he could just leave and say school ended early. 

Wait. That wouldn't work because, oh look, Nico had an uptight older sister with nothing better to do than judge his every move! Lovely. And surely Nico wouldn't just walk up to his shop teacher and blatantly hug him with no explanation, in front of the whole class. 

He wasn't one for public displays of affection and that fact probably wouldn't change anytime soon. 

Nico spent all of sixth period sketching in his graffiti designed notebook while, thankfully, the Mrs. Dodds was busy trying to get Percy Jackson to stop throwing things at Luke Castellan, and when the bell rang, Nico's stomach dropped dangerously low, just like it did every day when the bell rang for seventh period.

Even with this uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, Nico got up and raced out the door in the crowd of students, bursting through it as though he were desperate for a breath of fresh air, which, in a way, he was. 

He darted to his locker, still being careful of his surroundings.

When he finally had it open (it took a while considering the locker was being a bitch this time), he pulled out a fresh pen and his notebook for sketching, placing it carefully into the first unfilled zipper of his army green backpack, which honestly didn't go with the rich brown of his tattered aviators jacket.

Nico steadily made his way to shop, biting his lip nervously, trying to disown the churning in his stomach and the fast thumping of his heart. 

Ba-boom.  
Ba-boom.  
Ba-boom.

And when he reached his destination, Mr. Valdez was sitting on his chair, staring at a single place in the room. Nico followed his gaze, and then he knew the fighting of his cheeks turning crimson was useless. 

Valdez was staring at the work desk of Nico, the one sitting in the very back of the room, hidden in the shadows where hardly any light from the windows shone. Nico nervously shuffled over to his desk and sat in his stool, pulling up the fur on his aviators jacket so that it covered his face. 

Sighing, Nico took out his notebook and placed it on the table, flipping through it to look for a clean page. When he found it, he began to sketch what he'd seen that morning; A dead rose being held by a girl. He added story to the picture; The rose was dead, but the girl still saw the beauty in it, like it was someone she had loved before... It kind of reminded Nico of how Bianca was around him. After his mother's death, Nico shattered and there didn't seem like anyway of putting him back together. But Bianca had said there was light left, and Nico knew from there that maybe things were going to end up okay. 

So absorbed in his sketch, Nico didn't notice that the bell had rang until he looked up and saw students filing in.

"Hello, Rugrats," Valdez greeted them as they sat at their desks, getting up from his chair and moving to the front of his desk. Nico's partner, Jason Grace, walked over and sat down on the stool to the right of him, giving an awkward hi before crossing his arms onto the work table. "So, I have a project for you all to do." Loud groans echoed in the room, but Valdez waved them down with his hand. "Calm down, calm down... The project isn't anything difficult. All you have to do is build a small building based only on your imagination. Anything you want to add to it, but... I believe everything created should have meaning, therefore you will be writing an essay on the backstory of your building to go along with the project." Nico noticed that some faces around the room softened, but Jason still looked bored and not very happy about it. "Questions?"

Reyna Ramírez raised her hand. "Will we be completing this with our partners?" 

Valdez leaned back onto his desk, clapping his hands together. "Of course." 

"Why?"

The young teacher licked his lips, giving his attention to the classroom. "You see, dear children of the popcorn society," He took a breath. "I believe that in the midst of seeing each others ideas, inspiration will spark. Or in this case, you'll probably feel the need to compete with each other's projects."  
Nico chuckled, looking back down to his sketch book and continuing to add detail to the rose.

"Do you... wanna just come up with our own ideas and you know, see which one's better?" Jason asked after a while, voice slightly quivering. "Or you know, we could just do what you come up with, I don't know, whatever you-"

Nico held up his hand. "That's fine. I think Reyna and Octavian are doing it that way, too."

He'd gotten his idea figured out in his head already, and the idea of building it made his heart jump with excitement, which it didn't do often. Valdez handed out a few sheets of paper and let the class sketch out designs for the project, still answering questions as he did so. Nico finished designing the project first (obviously) and stuffed the pages into his backpack. He noticed that Grace was having trouble (all that was on his sheet was something that looked like a banana and a stick figure), so he helped him with the idea and sketched it all down. But he wasn't exactly doing it out of the kindness of his heart. He just needed a distraction from Valdez, whose white t-shirt was sticking to his skin. The suspenders didn't help, either (and was it completely terrible that Nico kind of wanted to grab the straps of them and pull his teacher into a kiss?).

"Nico?" Grace snapped the boy out of his trance. He nodded in an order to reassure the kid that he was paying attention (even though he wasn't). The two worked on the design until the bell rang and students began struggling out of the classroom. 

Grace raced out, obviously not looking to plan a date to work on their project. Nico began to stand from his seat, but he slipped off the ripped leather stool and began crashing to the floor (yeah, impress your teacher crush like a boss, bitches). He caught himself on the edge of the table, but the contents of his backpack were left to scatter all over the floor. "Shit."  
He scrambled to pick it all up but stopped at two converse shoes and tingle on his neck. Looking up, he was pleasantly (and not so pleasantly) greeted by the astonishing face of (drum roll, please!)... Mr. Valdez! 

"Hi." He greeted awkwardly. "Need help with that?"

Nico looked up at him, kind of like a deer in the headlights. "Oh, u- um, yeah. Hey. Hi." The young teacher laughed and began to help pick up his things and put them in Nico's backpack.

Nico was about to grab his sketchpad, which had flipped open in the fall, but Valdez beat him to the chase. "You drew these?" He asked, looking up at Nico slightly but still flipping through the pages. Nico shyly nodded. "They're really good." He paused. "And kind of depressing." 

"Yeah, well," Nico took the sketchpad from Valdez. "Thanks- Thank you." He shoved the last of his stuff into his bag. "I'll, uh, I'll see you tomorrow?"

Valdez got up off the ground and nodded sadly. "Okay," Nico began to walk out the door, but stopped when Valdez spoke again. "And Mr. Di'Angelo?"

"Yeah?" Nico turned to him. 

"Tell me," Valdez said, slowly stepping closer. "Is the cafeteria really that bad?"


	2. A Friendly Conversation with Frank Zhang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Jason meet up, and Frank Zhang gets a talking to.

Jason Grace was the most awkward person Nico had ever met in his existence, if he counted out himself. The kid would always stumble over his words, stutter, and look really freaked out every time they saw each other in school, or on the rare occasions that they accidentally met outside of school (usually the Ambrosia café, where most of the students from Asphodel High School went to study or hang out). Whether it was because Nico scared him, or Jason was just genuinely this awkward and nervous looking, he didn't know. What he did know, was that his tongue was going to start bleeding if he kept biting it in attempt to hold back a snap at how annoying Jason's stuttering was. He hoped he wasn't this annoying when he stuttered. 

"So uh, your idea is better, I think," Jason muttered, taking a sip of of his hot chocolate and shifting in the café chair he was sitting in. "I- I mean, I don't care, you can choose."

Nico had walked up to him outside on the same day they were assigned their projects to ask about what times he was available. Jason looked confused and flustered, which was annoying, but he eventually answered after his eyes shrunk back to normal non-anime size that they could meet at Ambrosia to talk about it. 

Nico sighed. "Okay, we'll do mine then." Honestly, he preferred his own sketch, so he was glad Jason didn't immediately go for his own, like anybody else would have. Something about what he designed made Nico feel at home. Weirdly, he wondered what it'd be like to live there, even though it was probably the most irrational thing to happen since Percy Jackson decided Luke Castellan would be his future boyfriend (and the dude was still working that out- Nico wished him luck). 

"Do you wanna ask Mr Valdez if we can work in his classroom after hours?" Jason asked, taking another sip. 

Nico scowled. "No!" Jason gave him a funny look. "I- I just mean that... he could be busy, you know, and some other kids might already want to work in there?"

Jason knit his brows, but didn't say anything further. After a while, he suggested, "We can work at my house, if you want." Nico nodded, excited the guy didn't say anything about Mr Valdez or  
working at his own house- both were just a catastrophe waiting to happen. 

"We can probably work tomo-" Nico was interrupted by a vibration in his left jeans pocket. He pulled out his phone and typed in the passcode, swiping down from the top to see his notifications. 

Bianca  
4:02pm Where are you? 

Nico sighed, typing back a reply. 

I'm just getting coffee. I'm leaving right now, don't worry.

He looked back up at Jason, who was staring at his cup of hot chocolate, seeming to be in deep thought. "Um, like I was saying, we can work on the project tomorrow, if you're free."

"Y- Yeah, that's fine," Jason said, snapping out of his gaze. Nico nodded in acknowledgement and stood up from the seat, picking up his coffee. 

"Okay, see you tomorrow, then," Nico zipped up his aviators jacket and walked to the door of the café, the slightest bit relieved that he didn't have to endure any more of whatever that awkward conversation was. 

When he stepped outside, it was colder than it was that morning. Nico figured that it'd snow if it started to rain, which looked like it was about to happen, so he walked as fast as he could to his apartment building. Thankfully, it was close by; only two buildings down once he turned left, straight past the side of the Ambrosia Café.

The phone in his pocket vibrated as he stepped inside his building. He pulled it out, walking into the elevator and fixing his hair by shaking it to the side (like Justin Bieber, or danisnotonfire). 

Bianca  
4:09pm Hurry, I need your help setting up. Hazel's friend is over for dinner.

Nico furrowed his brows, not at all looking forward to having a guest over, and stepped into the elevator, where two little boys were fighting over a smaller boy who was in the middle of them. Nico tried not to look like he was paying attention (he was listening) and tapped the 6 button.

"He's my brother, Jared," One said to the other. "He's gonna do what I say first."

"But he's my best friend," The slightly shorter kid retorted. "And since when does your brother listen to you?"

"Since my mommy told him to!" 

Eventually, the pointless bickering got annoying, and Nico was starting to get impatient. It seemed like forever until the elevator got to his floor. When he finally stepped out, he was glad he didn't have to listen to their annoying squeaky voices.

He took a short walk down the hall until he reached his apartment, where he could hear Bianca and Hazel's chattering on the inside. He knocked instead of pulling out his key, since he was later  
than usual and someone was actually home to let him in.

A few seconds later, the door swung open, and Nico was greeted by the face of a very excited and happy looking Hazel. 

It was terrifying. 

***

Nico had been eyeing Hazel's friend all night, and after a while, he came to the conclusion that maybe they weren't just friends. When Nico had went to refill everyone's cups, he'd saw their hands on each other's under the table, and throughout dinner, Hazel had been smiling at him funny and Frank would blush every time she mentioned something "awesome" or "nice" he did. Nico didn't see himself as the protective big brother type, but if someone even looked at one of his sisters funny (even though Bianca's older than him), he'd basically murder them with his death glare, which unsurprisingly, freaked them out. He wouldn't call that over protective... more like, he's looking out for them, like big brother's should look after their little siblings. 

Frank was obviously a nice guy, but Nico was unsure of his intentions. Did he plan to take Hazel on dates? Did he plan on using her to do his homework for him? (Nico had been there.) Did he plan on kissing her? Whatever boyfriends did with their girlfriends, Nico didn't care. All he knew was that he was having a talk with this Chinese Baby Man before he left, and that it was going to get the message through. 

"Thanks for coming, Frank," Bianca smiled, holding one hand over the arm she was waving bye to him with. Hazel gave him a friendly peck on the cheek and waved bye. 

"I'll see you out," Nico said, earning a nervous glance from Frank. They both walked to the elevator and stepped inside, and the second the doors were closed, Nico pulled his arm from around  
Frank's shoulder. 

"Alright, listen up. You like my sister a lot, she obviously likes you," He took in a breath as Frank blushed. "but I'd just like to get something straight. She's been through a lot, she's fragile, and if you ever hurt her, I will return the favor, and maybe even make it hurt a little more. To put it simply; if you hurt her, you do anything to her that she doesn't like- I swear to god, you will die." The elevator dinged, signaling they were at the lobby. The door opened as Frank vigorously nodded his head with a weird- also terrified- look in his eyes, and walked out.  
Nico smiled, calling "Have a nice week," after him. Once the elevator doors were closed again, he pressed the button for his floor, going back up with the relief of knowing Hazel would be safe to make him feel better about the day.

**Author's Note:**

> ty for reading :)


End file.
